Invincible Volume Eight: My Favorite Martian covers issues #s 36-41. It’s another brutal volume. Robert Kirkman, no matter the subject matter, seeks to ruin his readers emotional outlook for the day. I am really unsettled by the contents of this volume, just like I was with all the rest that I’ve read of this series and all of The Walking Dead. But there is something about Kirkman’s work that turns all of his readers into masochists, because we keep coming back. He destroys a lot, but puts enough hope in each series that we continue to root for our heroes no matter how bleak it looks. Ugh, I hate you Kirkman…and I kind of love you.

That said, proceed with caution: SPOILER ALERT.

Lots of stuff happened in this installment. Some of it needed to happen and we all saw it coming. For example, Atom Eve kissing Mark and Mark and Amber breaking up due to Amber being unhappy in the relationship. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting and hoping for this. Amber is uptight, and while I understand that it was a difficult relationship for her, I also see Mark’s mom, who was married to Omni-Man. She is like a shining star of women in a difficult relationship, and before Omni-man’s betrayal she handled the relationship rather well. Amber has been annoying since the beginning. Good riddance.

Other stuff that happened, I wouldn’t have guessed would ever happen: Dupli-Kate and Shrinking Ray are now deceased due to a battle with Supreme Lizard (I’m guessing Kirkman’s take on Hydra). They were supporting characters, and I didn’t have much invested in them especially since Kate was kind of a B. But seeing how the loss takes it’s toll on the other characters is pretty rough. Besides the fact that they died. I was so surprised at the brutality in which they died. I don’t know why I was surprised since that’s Kirkman’s M.O. but I was. It’s probably the neat and clean art style.

The major plot point of this volume was dealing with and eliminating the threat from the Sequids. All of the Guardians of the Globe almost expire because of this fight but it’s seemingly taken care of and even the astronaut that was being controlled is rescued. But of course that gross threat isn’t contained! They were inside the astronaut! And of course, their little tentacley bodies had to squirm their way up his throat. Ew! Now the Earth is still dealing with the Sequids threat; it’s such a gross threat too.

Verdict:

Overall, pretty good. Even though such terrible things happened, it still didn’t pack the punch that several other volumes have. I don’t think every volume will be able to do that but when it doesn’t you just feel different after you finish. I feel like there was a lot of set-up for what is to come later in this one. I have to emotionally prepare myself before I read the next volume.